Flooding risk profile: The Zanzibar case study

The increasing frequency and intensity of disasters represent a significant threat, both direct and indirect, on different fronts and at different territorial levels. The envir- onmental changes our time is facing are exacerbating the effects of natural hazards, becoming an increasingly central issue in global debates, both in terms of impacts but also how to manage these risks to reduce the former. Tropical rainfalls, cyclones, storm surges, floodings, tsunamis, weathering, sea level rise are only some of the major climate-change-related effects with respect to the hydrogeological risk, no stranger to the province of Zanzibar in Tanzania. The paper presents the results of the working group developed during the third edition of the International Summer School “After the Damages”, whose members work focused on some reflections in respect to the topics mentioned above with special attention to the case study of Zanzibar. Stone town, the old district of the city of Zanzibar - enlisted among the World Heri- tage Properties - and its community have been endangered for years now by a high level of hydrogeological risk. In 2016, as a first step in face of the environmental threat the GFDRR staff developed a Flooding Risk Profile for the area The work provided a multi- hazard risk assessment for the implementation of appropriate disaster risk financing initiatives. Starting from the analysis of the good practices developed in Zanzibar, the contribution proposes some considerations on the state-of- the-art for the management of hydrogeological risk.